I will establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood. There shall not be another flood to devastate the earth. The Genesis narrative of Noah and the flood is among the important scriptural events that have not only dotted the relationship that exists between God and creation, but have also come to shape that relationship. For it was in the aftermath of the flood that God established the first covenant with the universe. It was a covenant that affords us a nature/quality of God that we sometimes tend to forget.
The great flood (as it has come to be known) was occasioned by God’s anger at the widespread sin that had resulted from the wickedness of man (cf. Genesis 6:5ff). As the narrative clearly puts it, God was grieved at heart and regretted having created the human person. To “make things right,” God decided to wipe from the face of the earth man and beast alike, save for Noah and his family, by means of a flood. Thus for forty days and nights, the waters of the flood drenched the earth, erasing everything on the earth that was not inside Noah’s Ark. When the waters finally subsided, the bare earth became a sorry sight that “surprised” even God himself. The beauty of green plants and fresh scent from the flowers, blue and clear waters, and the chiming of birds was now replaced by a smell of decay and death. It was a sight that must have brought tears to God’s eyes, leading God to have a change of heart. For as we have heard in the First Reading, God promised never to unleash on the earth any destructive force such as the flood had been. After everything had settled and the earth was sprouting with life again, God “sat” down with Noah in order to clear any hanging issues. The result was the covenant in which God swore to never again let his anger consume the earth.
In the covenant God made with Noah (and by extension with the entire created world), God vowed never again to “sanction” a devastation of the earth not because man made a promise never to sin again, but because God saw what happens when he lets man’s actions determine his reaction. God came to a “realization” that if he were to devastate the earth as a reaction to man’s wicked actions, then he would be forced to do it on a daily basis (cf. Psalm 130:3 “If you, Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?”). In the covenant, God repents (makes an about turn) of the devastation that swept the earth and promises to restore to its former state the relationship that existed between him and the universe at creation. In addition, God promises to forever remain faithful to the covenant.
In the Gospel reading, we see the theme of repentance constituting Jesus’ first words as he begins his preaching ministry. While repentance had also constituted the Baptist’s preaching, they differed in their sense of urgency. Whereas the Baptist preached repentance for the forgiveness of sins (cf. Mark 1:4), Jesus preached repentance because of the immanence of the kingdom. The people needed to repent because it was the time of fulfillment and they could no longer afford to wait. It was a message that was not only intended to its immediate hearers but rather to the human race. It was a message that was not geared to a particular “sin” as such but rather to the sin of rebellion that had come to characterize humanity’s relationship with God (the rebellion that led to the devastation by the great flood). In his summons, Jesus calls on humanity to turn away from a life of rebellion so as to enjoy the fullness of life that remaining in a relationship with God generates.
Jesus himself is the fulfillment that he was proclaiming. For the fulfillment means nothing other than God and humanity/creation being re-united once again. The fulfillment meant that time had come for the restoration of the relationship between God and creation that had been strained by humanity’s rebellion. All that men and women had to do was to make an about turn (repent) and come back to God. Their continued persistence in rebellion was only hurting them, not God. The sooner they returned to God, the better it was for them. It was the time of fulfillment because it is only in Jesus that the gap between God and creatures brought about by humanity’s rebellion can be bridged. Jesus bridges this gap by teaching us how to be once again obedient to God’s purposes and by so doing become recipients of God’s promises to creation (fullness of life).